Careless Smoker Accused of Causing 2025 Osaka Fatal Fire

Osaka, July 14 (Jiji Press)–Japanese police sent papers to prosecutors on Tuesday accusing a smoker of causing a fire that killed two firefighters in the western city of Osaka in August last year. The Osaka prefectural police department suspects that the fire started near the first floor of a building in Osaka’s Dotonbori entertainment district due to the 35-year-old man’s careless handling of a lit cigarette. The police called for prosecutors to indict the man on charges of gross negligence resulting in an accidental fire. The man allegedly dumped a lit cigarette into a ditch strewn with plastic bottles and bags at around 9:30 a.m. on Aug. 18 last year, igniting them and allowing the fire to spread into two buildings through an outdoor unit. The fire spread to the upper floors of the buildings through several exterior advertising signs and burned a total of 105 square meters, according to a report released in January by an investigation committee of the Osaka Municipal Fire Department. The two firefighters were stranded on the sixth floor of the east building and died after a backdraft caused explosive combustion on the fifth floor when they were working to extinguish the fire. The suspect, an employee of an eating establishment in one of the buildings, often discarded lit cigarettes carelessly in the area, according to the police. The police did not pursue charges of causing death by gross negligence as it determined that it was impossible for the man to foresee the backdraft. Some of the outdoor signs did not use fire-resistant materials as required by the building standards law. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]